Brooks also SPECIFICALLY told the mainstream media when he had his press conference that the reduction in ticket / parking prices WILL NOT IMPACT the payroll the team has to work with.

Assuming he isn't flat out lying (and I don't think he would) obviosuly there are other areas that carry more impact on payroll then it was assumed in the past.

Lip

I believe Brooks because the reduction in ticket prices should not negatively affect ticket revenue. The seats with the steepest discounts are the seats that went mostly unsold over the past few years, so there should actually be an increase in ticket revenue and attendance. The higher attendance will lead to more revenue from ads, so it should be a win-win.

If attendance doesn't increase significantly in 2013, then I would absolutely expect a payroll purge.

Literally on the phone with my rep. I have two seats in 145 and he said the price is going UP on my seats.

Did your rep say how much they are going up?

The original email from the Sox listed Bleachers, Outfield reserved, Premium Upper box, Upper box, and Upper reserved as going down in price. I just assumed that the Premium lower boxes would go up while the lower boxes held flat but I guess that some lower boxes are going up also.

The Sox are taking the premium lower box seats and stratifying them into three layers:Rows 26 and above (Gold)Rows 11-25 (me- row 19) (Platinum)Rows 1-10. (not sure of name?)·All premium lower box seats were $3,682 per seat last year (or $45.46 per ticket)·For premium lower box seats in rows 26 and above (Gold) the 2013 seats will remain the same price.·For premium lower box seats in rows 11-25 (Platinum) the 2013 price will go up $449 per seat to $4,131 or $51 per ticket·The people in the first 10 rows go up $854 per seat to $4,536 per seat (or $56 per ticket).

He also made a comment that sections 119 & 120 would be gold so I assume that the parallel seats on the third base will also apply.

Parking lots will probably be pretty full at $20, especially with the red line shutdown next season.

The Red Line is not being shut down, it is merely being rerouted over the Green Line tracks. For anyone who catches the Red Line north of Cermak/Chinatown (which I would say is the vast majority of people who ride the L to the park) nothing is changing for you save for an extra 2 blocks you will need to walk to and fro.

The Red Line is not being shut down, it is merely being rerouted over the Green Line tracks. For anyone who catches the Red Line north of Cermak/Chinatown (which I would say is the vast majority of people who ride the L to the park) nothing is changing for you save for an extra 2 blocks you will need to walk to and fro.

I was just thinking about this the other day. It's going to be really interesting to see what happens next year. I've used that Green Line station almost exclusively since 2004. It is not sized to accommodate the same type of crowds as the Red Line station is. I know how bad the Red Line is after a game with a big crowd, and that's when they have all of the turnstyles open and the express lanes with the handheld card scanners on the right side. That Green Line station only has three or four turnstyles, and the platform isn't as wide. That has potential to get ugly if the CTA doesn't have their **** together.

I was just thinking about this the other day. It's going to be really interesting to see what happens next year. I've used that Green Line station almost exclusively since 2004. It is not sized to accommodate the same type of crowds as the Red Line station is. I know how bad the Red Line is after a game with a big crowd, and that's when they have all of the turnstyles open and the express lanes with the handheld card scanners on the right side. That Green Line station only has three or four turnstyles, and the platform isn't as wide. That has potential to get ugly if the CTA doesn't have their **** together.

I know they switched "Red" & "Green", but did most people just take the Ryan L north and switch over at Lake Street if they wanted to continue north instead of west?

That was the Green Line. The Red Line trains were just as crowded back then as they are now. Obviously it will be a little more crowded because both Red and Green will be together, but they can rig it to go pretty smoothly if they stage the trains correctly. You probably aren't going to have to sit in a train for 10 minutes after a game waiting for the Guiness Book of World Records to show up to count how many people have been fit into a train car next year.

I was just thinking about this the other day. It's going to be really interesting to see what happens next year. I've used that Green Line station almost exclusively since 2004. It is not sized to accommodate the same type of crowds as the Red Line station is. I know how bad the Red Line is after a game with a big crowd, and that's when they have all of the turnstyles open and the express lanes with the handheld card scanners on the right side. That Green Line station only has three or four turnstyles, and the platform isn't as wide. That has potential to get ugly if the CTA doesn't have their **** together.

Yeah, it is something to worry about, we'll see how the city handles it, but hopefully congestion will be alleviated a bit by having 2 lines running on the South Side Elevated; Red and Green Line trains will operate on the present-day Red Line so there will be 2x as many arrivals at 35th-Bronzeville-IIT.

If not, it's just a small, minor inconvenience to have to deal with to have the Dan Ryan leg of the Red Line completely rebuilt and fixed in just a few months as opposed to dragging on construction over several years. It's really not a big deal.